.... On December 4, 2011, Wreaths Across Canada will formally debut its mission by placing a wreath on the headstone of every veteran buried at the National Military Cemetery (NMC) at Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa. We will invite the public and encourage young Canadians to participate in this most personal act of remembrance. We are committed to repeating this gesture of remembrance annually in Ottawa, and our vision is to have this ceremony of commemoration spread to every military cemetery across Canada.
As part of our mission to teach Canadian youth the value of freedom, we are developing a program for students to be unveiled, hopefully, in 2012. The intent is to offer a modest prize for the student who best researches and reports on a topic related to veterans buried in the NMC. Local school boards are enthusiastic about our program and there is a growing interest from other organizations and associations.
All too often when the image of Canadian war dead comes to mind, we think of those buried overseas at places like Vimy, Normandy, Ortona, or Hong Kong. But over 250,000 veterans, many of whom fought in and survived those same battles, are now buried in military cemeteries throughout the nation. Veterans Affairs Canada alone is responsible for the maintenance of over 200,000 veterans’ graves in Canada and each year that figure grows as more graves are codified and added to their care. As well, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemeteries in Canada contains the remains of over 18,000 service men and women who died in Canada while serving during the two World Wars ....
